IndiaPost.com - Edison inaugurates ground with T20 community cricket

NEW JERSEY: On the warm, sunny June 7 morning, Mayor Jun Choi released hundreds of red, white and blue balloons to mark the inauguration of the first dedicated cricket pitch in the heavily populated Indo-American town of Edison.

Mayor Choi who captained one of the teams playing the first ever Twenty-20 over Community Cricket match in New Jersey bowled the first over as part of the inaugural ceremony of the Cricket grounds at the Thomas Jefferson Middle School on the Division Road.

Facing him with the willow was former Ratepayer Advocate of New Jersey Seema Singh who quickly took a couple of runs against the bowling of the Mayor. Also, fielding in the ground were other local personalities like Edison councilman Dr Sudhanshu Prasad, former publisher and CEO of 'NJ Desi' and Home News Tribune Ketan Gandhi among others.

In the audience watching the Mayor bowl were top township officials from the Recreation Department, Public Works and the School Board of Education. Earlier, Atul Huckoo, president of the Edison Cricket Club who had spearheaded the efforts to establish the town's first cricket ground, kicked off the formal inaugural ceremony of the "Western Union Cup" by thanking the township officials, community leaders, ECC members and the ethnic press for their unstinting support in establishing the grounds in Edison.

He also thanked the sponsors Western Union, Indus American Bank, Diamond Essence, Glaceau, Indigo Restaurant, Hot breads and dreamcricket.com for their support for this event. Edison Cricket Club's official sponsors: Emirates Airline, State Bank of India and Effexoft got a special mention from him. As part of the inaugural ceremony, Seema Singh and Mayor Choi captained two Edison teams named after their sponsors - Diamond Essence and Indus American Bank - respectively.

Having won the toss, Diamond Essence elected to bat and later won a hard-contested match. Raja Shah, Vice President of Diamond Essence jewelers, said about his decision to sponsor this event: "One of the many dreams we leave behind in India while coming to America is to play cricket…We couldn't resist the temptation to be a part of an earnest effort to promote Cricket on and off the field." Dave Majumdar of Western Union and Hemant Mirchandani of Indus American Bank expressed delight in being partly instrumental in helping Edison establish its first own cricket pitch.

Majumdar hoped that the ball has been set rolling that will eventually result in an all American Cricket League. Commending the players for their commitment to the game by braving near-90 degrees temperatures to play, Mayor Choi thanked Edison Cricket Club for bringing "great energy, enthusiasm and vitality" not only to cricket but also to the entire Edison community.

Noting that the South Asian Community has emerged as the single largest ethnic community in Edison, the Mayor committed to continue his support for the promotion of cricket. "We are not done with inaugurating a cricket pitch on a school ground," he said.

"We will soon have a larger, grander dedicated cricket ground that will attract the entire world to Edison." Seema Singh who was the only woman player on the ground expressed hopes that the ECC would soon start a women's cricket team and said: "Cricket is not only a sport but also a symbol of unity and how we have arrived in America."

Pragnesh Patel and Mayur Khandelwal from the Cricket League of New Jersey umpired the game. Every run scored was welcome by the sound of the dhol and bhangra dancers which was provided by T.I.M.E entertainment along with cheers from the spectators on the ground. Cricket commentators, Venu Palaparthi and Arvind Ramachandran, from dreamcricket.com kept the crowd engaged in the game and also provided updates to the listeners of EBC radio.

Diamond Essence team scored 120 runs and lost 9 wickets in their 20 over's while scoring a narrow/emphatic victory over Indus American Bank team 97 runs all out. Atul Huckoo later gave away the "Western Union Cricket Cup" to the winning team.

Later, Diamond Essence presented token jewelry gifts to the 'Man of the Match' Manoj Bagwe, The Best Batsman award to Rakesh Shah, The Bowler award to Rizwan Bajwa, and the best fielder award to Chirag Patel.